Nearly 200 Whitingham and Wilmington voters gathered together for the first joint school district meeting since the two towns voted to create Twin Valley School District. The first Twin Valley School budget passed with a resounding “aye” from the floor.

The Senior Center located in a storefront at Shaw’s Plaza was looking for a new home after the grocery chain’s real estate division began screening for new tenants. Although Shaw’s was providing the space rent-free, Senior Center volunteers said they were willing to pay to stay in the spot, and asked Shaw’s to provide them with a price for rent. Shaw’s corporate headquarters never contacted the Senior Center.

15 years ago:

Orange County Sen. Mark MacDonald introduced a bill that would have limited school contributions from education funds to a half percent of school spending. MacDonald said use of the funds to reduce the impact of Act 60 on “gold towns” was “a clear attempt to keep the playing field uneven.” Wilmington Education Fund President Meg Streeter called the bill “mean-spirited.”

Wilmington voiced concern over a Mount Snow plan to tap into Harriman Reservoir for snowmaking water with a five-mile pipeline that would run through Wilmington and Dover. Town attorney Richard Gale, noting that Mount Snow’s development appeared to be aimed at keeping skiers at the mountain, suggested that a condition for Wilmington’s cooperation on the pipeline might be that no further commercial development be carried out at the resort.

20 years ago:

The Whitingham School Board’s goals committee voted to put a nonbinding referendum on the Town Meeting warning asking voters if they would like to pursue a school “merger.” Two high school seniors at the meeting outlined the need for more academic and social opportunities for students.

Citing problems with overcrowding, the Dover School Board presented a plan for a six-room addition. The estimated cost for the addition was just under $1.3 million, and would add 3 cents to the tax rate.

25 years ago:

Jacksonville Village President Buddy Holland requested that the town of Whitingham pay for all of the streetlights in town. At the time, the town paid for street lights in Whitingham Village, but Jacksonville Electric Company customers had been paying for Jacksonville’s streetlights through a surcharge on their monthly bill. Holland said it wasn’t fair for taxpayers in one part of town to pay for streetlights out of their own pockets, and he said the Public Service Board agreed. “If you won’t pay for all the lights, we’ll turn the lights off in Jacksonville,” Holland said. Selectboard members said the decision should be left up to Town Meeting voters.

30 years ago:

Haystack Ski Area was once again under contract for sale to a group of investors. Spokesman for the group Michael Kimack said they hoped to have the ski resort up and running by the following ski season. Haystack had been closed for three years, when American Mortgage Investors (AMI) announced they were ceasing operations to “work down” problems at the area. AMI took control of the ski area after local builder Tom Cullen’s Haystack Development Corporation went into bankruptcy in 1974.

40 years ago:

Wilmington bid farewell to 63-year-old “Wee” Moran, a lifelong Wilmington resident and “local character” who decided to put his house up for sale and hit the open road in a brand new GMC motor home. During his life in Wilmington, Moran worked at Mountain Mills (a village now flooded by Harriman Reservoir), Luddington Woodenware (a factory now occupied by the DVTA MOOver) and as a plumber, mechanic, plow driver, and gas station owner. He also started one of the first ski rental businesses in town. Moran planned to travel the country, visiting many of the friends he made in his years as a businessman.

At a meeting between state and local officials, Marlboro Selectboard members indicated they would not support efforts to create a Higley Hill bypass. If the bypass plan had been successful, the state would have provided funding to pave and upgrade the route from Route 9 in Marlboro to Route 100 in Wilmington. Selectboard members in Wilmington said they would prefer an east-west truck bypass.

45 years ago:

Mount Snow’s Summit Lodge was destroyed in an early morning fire. Mount Snow employees discovered the fire at about 7:30 am when they got to the summit to begin the day’s lift operations. The building was already about 80% destroyed by the time lift workers got there, but they were able to extinguish a second blaze in an adjacent chairlift terminal. Fire officials estimated the blaze started around 5 am, but cloud cover on the summit concealed the flames from valley residents.

Maple Valley Ski Area purchased an additional 75 acres of land, doubling the size of the small resort. Resort owners planned to sell lots for ski chalets and build a 40-unit motel. Maple Valley president Charles Purinton said the ski area was off to its best start since it opened six years earlier.

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